Technology

ABSTRACT Quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis of nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) was conducted on data generated from two pot experiments carried out in 2005 (using four nitrogen rates) and 2008 (with three rates) with AFLP markers and 94 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) of the Prisma × Apex mapping population. In total 41 QTLs were detected on 6 chromosomes and for 18 traits in both trials. About 95 % of the detected QTLs were with major additive effects. The percentage of variance accounted for by individual QTLs in the multiple QTL mapping model ranged from 8.4 to 54.4 % across all mapped traits in both years. Fifteen QTLs were related to NUE and its components; most of these QTLs were detected at lower nitrogen rates and none at the highest rate in both trials. These QTLs were found on Chromosomes 3(3H) and 7(5H) in 2005 and Chromosome 2(2H) in 2008. Except for the QTLs of plant height and NUE based on grain yield, none of the QTLs which were detected for a given trait in 2005, expressed themselves in 2008 irrespective of the nitrogen levels. QTLs controlling some traits were co-located in each year, and QTLs for many traits were detected on the same chromosome and close to the denso locus. Further research is needed to investigate the possibility to reduce nitrogen fertilizer requirements through breeding while maintaining high yield of barley.

In Ireland, grass is a readily available bioresource. It has previously been established that Green biorefinery (GBR) could become a potential use of Irish grasslands, and a blueprint for a sustainable GBR industry in Ireland has been developed. The objective of this paper is to use scenario analysis to investigate the sensitivity of the profitability of the GBR blueprint to variations in grass quantity and quality as a function of botanical composition, fertiliser application, and biomass availability. As an outcome of these scenario analyses, the price the GBR can offer to farmers above their production costs (€ t−1 dry matter) was calculated. Results of the scenario analyses determined that GBR systems located in a catchment area of permanent pasture (Lolium perenne > 60%) with annual grass yields in the range of 9–12 t dry matter (DM) ha−1, and supplied with grass biomass with a fibre content of 500–555 g kg−1 DM and a protein content of 110–130 g kg−1 DM, were viable. The most profitable scenarios were generated when nitrogen fertiliser application was greater than 90 kg ha−1 a−1. Biomass availability of less than 30% resulted in reduced profitability and for some scenarios resulted in a loss for both the GBR and farmer due to increased transport costs. Within the scenario assumptions of this study, grass feedstock was valued at €4–€56 t−1 dry matter above production costs. However, this value depended on the yields and biomass availability of the GBR catchment area.

Radiofrequency (13.56MHz) plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition process is used for deposition of SiOx films on bell metal substrates using Ar/hexamethyldisiloxane/O2 glow discharge. The DC self-bias voltage developed on the substrates is observed to be varied from −35V to −115V depending on the RF power applied to the plasma. Plasma potential measurements during film deposition process are carried out by

ABSTRACT Different elephant grass accessions as substrate for enzyme production for the hydrolysis of lignocellulosic materials.•It is possible to replace cellulose by elephant grass biomass cellulases production.•Different genotypes showed different potential to enzymes production.•There is no direct relationship between the amount of lignin and cellulose to production of enzymes.•Mineral salts present in the biomass influenced significantly enzyme production.

Most insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus patients gen-erate conformational autoantibodies to the islet-cell 65-kDa variant of human glutamate decarboxylase (GAD65), and several immunochemical tests for the early detection of type-1 diabetes rely on GAD65 antibody (GADA) assessment using properly folded recombinant GAD65 as the antigen. In addition, preventive therapies based on tolerization by GAD65 administration may be available in the near future. Therefore, there exists a strong interest in a facile and economically sound expression procedure for this antigen. Several attempts to produce, in native form, wild-type GAD65 in Escherichia coli have failed. However, this difficulty was recently surmounted in our laboratory by expressing GAD65 as a fusion protein with thioredoxin [Papouchado, Valdez, Ghiringhelli, Poskus and Ermácora (1997) Eur. J. Biochem. 246, 350-359]. In this work, a new GAD65 hybrid gene was prepared by joining engineered cDNA obtained from human and rat tissues. The new gene was modified additionally to finally code for human GAD65 with a single amino-acid substitution: Met-161-->Thr. This change impeded the co-expression of a 48-kDa by-product from an internal translation site. Also, a second 58-kDa by-product was identified as a GAD65 C-terminal proteolytic fragment that co-purifies with thioredoxin-M161T GAD65. The new GAD65 variant was expressed and easily purified, yielding an antigen that performed equally or better than wild-type GAD65 in the reference radiobinding assay for GADA. The procedure provides an inexpensive source of large amounts of fully active and immunochemically competent GAD65.

Composition, functional properties, and in vitro antioxidant activities of gelatin hydrolysates prepared from cuttlefish skin were investigated. Cuttlefish skin gelatin hydrolysates (CSGHs) were obtained by treatment with crude enzyme preparations from Bacillus licheniformis NH1, Bacillus mojavensis A21, Bacillus subtilis A26, and commercial alcalase. All CSGHs had high protein contents, 74.3-78.3%, and showed excellent solubility (over 90%). CSGH obtained by alcalase demonstrated high antioxidant activities monitored by β-carotene bleaching, DPPH radical scavenging, lipid peroxidation inhibition, and reducing power activity. Its antioxidant activity remained stable or increased in a wide range of pH (1-9), during heating treatment (100°C for 240 min) and after gastrointestinal digestion simulation. In addition, alcalase-CSGH was incorporated into turkey meat sausage to determine its effect on lipid oxidation during 35 days of storage period. At 0.5 mg/g, alcalase-CSGH delayed lipid...

The epidermis is a stratified epithelium with a stem cell subpopulation in the basal layer that constantly replicates and periodically detaches from the basis, undergoing to a differentiation process that involves various developmental signals and regulatory pathways. During the last ten years, a number of studies tried to elucidate the intricate scenario that maintains the epithelial shield during the entire life span. In our study we investigated the role of Numb in the skin compartment and, in particular, its involvement in stem cell maintenance. Numb expression in the skin compartment was assessed by immunofluorescence and immunohistochemistry analysis. We evaluated Numb expression in primary epithelial cells at various differentiative stages. Moreover, we overexpressed Numb in the isolated population enriched for undifferentiated progenitors to establish its involvment in in vitro differentiation. We demonstrated that Numb in high proliferating epithelial undifferentiated proge...

Abstract This paper presents the possibility of improving the performance of dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) by treating the mesoporous TiO 2 using ultra thin metal oxides such as hafnium oxide (HfO 2) and aluminum oxide (Al 2 O 3) grown by atomic layer deposition (ALD) method. Ultrathin HfO 2 and Al 2 O 3 (few nm in thickness) metal oxide layers affect the density and activity of the interface states at the TiO 2/dye/electrolyte interfaces and hence affect the overall performance of DSSCs. Different thicknesses of HfO 2 and Al 2 O ...

Hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si:H) films, deposited by reactive radio-frequency sputtering with 33% hydrogen dilution in argon at 200°C, were treated with low-power hydrogen plasma at room temperature at various power densities (0.1–0.5W/cm2) and durations (10s–10min). Plasma treatment reduced the surface root mean square roughness and increased the average grain size. This was attributed to the mass transport of Si atoms